Gateway's Amiga prepares for return

Direct PC maker Gateway is gearing up for entry into the emerging "information appliance" market through its independent subsidiary, Amiga.

Amiga President Jim Collas says his company is developing what it calls a next generation computing platform designed to run devices ranging from kitchen countertop gadgets with Internet connections to digital set-top boxes and televisions - devices which may eventually eclipse PCs in terms of sales and popularity.

Called AmigaObjects, the technology is similar in concept to "device language" technologies being developed by a host of companies such as Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and Sony. With it, any device on a network can offer up its abilities to another device and share the task of processing commands.

Concept drawings of potential information appliances that could be powered by Amiga technology are already posted on the company's site. A major effort to show off this technology will come around November, about the same time the company has said it will offer up a "multimedia convergence computer" for die-hard Amiga fans.

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